How do I work with (or around) executives that don’t support our SharePoint/Office 365 efforts?

How do I build a user adoption strategy when my own leader doesn’t want to support it as an ongoing service offering?

How do we meld user adoption programs after a merger or acquisition?

How can we encourage geographically-dispersed staff to engage in local Office 365 community events?

How do we balance user adoption needs (e.g. speed of delivering new Office 365 groups) with the need for governance and rigor?

We hope you enjoy episode 4!

Want to know more about our podcast miniseries?
The Coffee Chat on 365 Adoption explores the challenge of driving Office 365 adoption at the organizational level. In episode 1, we dispelled the idea that adoption is an urban myth. We explained why the traditional “build it and they will come” IT model doesn’t work and outlined why organizations must invest in user adoption as an ongoing service.

Episode 2 focused on organizing and facilitating user adoption events. We shared creative ideas for hosting internal user group events, including virtual or in-person office hours, “lightning round” demos, and hack-a-thons (aka innovation day events). We also discussed the importance of making these events your own by tying them to your company culture.

Episode 3 focuses on strategies for building user adoption campaigns to support Office 365 product rollouts. We discuss how user personas can help you identify product use cases and key product features, share practical ideas for generating user excitement, and talk about the importance of running Office 365 pilot programs to road-test your communications and training plans.

Daniel Glenn and I are releasing episode 3 in our podcast miniseries The Coffee Chat on 365 Adoption! The episode, titled User Adoption Planning for Office 365 Pilots & Rollouts, was recorded at the 2019 MVP Summit. It focuses on strategies for building user adoption campaigns to support Office 365 product rollouts. We discuss how user personas can help you identify product use cases and key product features, share practical ideas for generating user excitement, and talk about the importance of running Office 365 pilot programs to road-test your communications and training plans.

We hope you enjoy episode 3!

Have a user adoption question?During our next episode, we’ll be answering user adoption questions. Want to have your question featured on the episode? Submit it now at https://go.re365.show/CoffeeChatQ

Want to know more about our podcast miniseries?
The Coffee Chat on 365 Adoption explores the challenge of driving Office 365 adoption at the organizational level. In episode 1, we dispelled the idea that adoption is an urban myth. We explained why the traditional “build it and they will come” IT model doesn’t work and outlined why organizations must invest in user adoption as an ongoing service.

Episode 2 focused on organizing and facilitating user adoption events. We shared creative ideas for hosting internal user group events, including virtual or in-person office hours, “lightning round” demos, and hack-a-thons (aka innovation day events). We also discussed the importance of making these events your own by tying them to your company culture.

Daniel Glenn and I just released episode 2 in our podcast miniseries The Coffee Chat on 365 Adoption. The miniseries explores the challenge of driving Office 365 adoption at the organizational level. In episode 1, we dispelled the idea that adoption is an urban myth. We explained why the traditional “build it and they will come” IT model doesn’t work and outlined why organizations must invest in user adoption as an ongoing service.

Episode 2 focuses on organizing and facilitating user adoption events. We discuss creative ideas for internal user groups, including virtual or in-person office hours, “lightning round” demos, and hack-a-thons (aka innovation day events). We also discuss the importance of making these events your own by ensuring they reflect your company culture. We hope you enjoy episode 2! And keep an eye out for episode 3 in the coming weeks!

The topic for our panel discussion was 2019 predictions for SharePoint. I was asked to represent the user adoption and enterprise governance point of view. Wes Preston outlined his predictions about PowerApps growth, Drew Madelung shared thoughts on OneDrive, and Treb Gatte discussed data visualizations and Power BI.

So what are my top predictions for SharePoint in 2019? Check them out:

User adoption challenges will grow. As organizations realize their users are not homogenous and the traditional methods (e.g. company-wide rollout email communications, “train the trainer” education strategies, instructor-led training classes that focuses on features and not business outcomes) are ineffective, there will be a stronger focus on effective adoption models.

SharePoint hub sites will require enterprise-level governance. Hub sites enable us to bring families of SharePoint sites together with common branding, search, news, and navigation. But hub sites are limited (only 100 hubs allowed per tenant) and site owners may be unsure when and where to use hub sites effectively. I predict many companies will dive headlong into hub sites and later realize that more effective governance of hubs is critical. I recommend creating a hub site governance policy and seeding your organization with strong hub site success stories/examples.

I have exciting news to share! Daniel Glenn and I are ready to unveil the first episode in our new podcast miniseries “The coffee chat on 365 adoption!” The podcast enables us to drink coffee and talk about the challenge of driving Office 365 adoption at the organizational level. We recorded the first podcast episode several weeks ago at SharePoint Fest Chicago.

Topics discussed in this episode:

Why organizations have difficulty achieving strong adoption

Common adoption pitfalls and roadblocks

The challenge of scaling adoption initiatives (moving beyond one-on-one initiatives to impact a broader group of users in your organization)

Why adoption should be treated as an ongoing service instead of a one-time project

Daniel and I will keep the user adoption conversation going as we record several additional coffee chats in the coming months. Each episode will focus on a different Office 365 adoption topic. We’ll share successful strategies we’ve seen for hosting adoption events and provide practical tips for supporting the rollout and adoption of key Office 365 applications.

We hope you enjoy this episode. And don’t miss the outtake photos from the podcast recording!